Dispensers for wet wipes and other substrates come in a wide variety of types and styles. Frequently, dispensers include lids that open to access the wipes contained therein. The lid is often held in a closed position by some restraining mechanism, such as a latch, snap, lock, or magnet. Latching or snapping the lid into the closed position often requires that a user apply a force to the lid to latch or snap it shut. Proper closing of the lid is important to prevent premature evaporation of the wetting solution with which the wipes are soaked. One common problem is that users will attempt to close the lid, but unwittingly not properly latch, lock, or otherwise completely and fully close the lid. The result is that the lid can remained slightly ajar, leading to slow but steady evaporation of the wetting solution, potential contamination of the wet wipes, or even loss of the wipes.
Also, it is desirable in some dispensers to have the lid adopt and maintain certain positions. For example, it is common in wipes dispensers to adopt a structure that urges an open lid into a fully open “dispensing” position to keep the lid out of the way when a user is pulling a wipe out of the dispenser. However, springs of various sorts have been conventionally required to create this effect, requiring the procurement and handling of a small extra component (the spring) that is generally not made of a recyclable plastic, and which introduces added complexity to commercial processes for manufacturing the dispenser.